But does she have a little something going on the side? A country album, perhaps?

She does. And this is not some kind of hush-hush, is-she-or-isn’t-she industry secret. Clarkson talked openly about it in a recent story in Time.

“I’ve actually been creating both albums — a country one and this one at the same time,” she said. “I’ve been working on both projects simultaneously. I’m both people. I have everything on my iPad from country to R&B to pop to rock.”

Clarkson was contractually obligated to do one more pop album, and now that her latest project is out of the way, look out country. (But don’t think for one second her heart wasn’t in this one. She says it’s her best pop album ever because she had so much time to devote to it while she was pregnant with daughter River Rose.)